Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 year banking career, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, and other major industry publications. The American Bankers Association (ABA) published Barnewall’s Profitable Private Banking: the Complete Blueprint, in 1987. She taught private banking at Colorado University for the ABA and trained private bankers in Singapore.

Friday, August 02, 2013

GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER NEEDS TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS

·Wisconsin
appointee Kevin Kavanaugh (R) was arrested for embezzling $42,000 from a
veterans benefit organization called Operation Freedom. Kavanaugh had been
appointed to run the organization by Republican Scott Walker who was Milwaukee County
Executive at the time. Four others were arrested and sentenced as well.[174][175]

MILWAUKEE, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A former aide to
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was convicted on Friday of stealing money from
a fund for families of U.S. soldiers
who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A jury in Milwaukee County Circuit Court found Kevin Kavanaugh guilty of
embezzling more than $42,000 from Operation Freedom, a military appreciation
event held each year at the Milwaukee County Zoo.

Kavanaugh, who worked for Walker when the
first-term Republican governor served as Milwaukee County
executive, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Sentencing is
expected on Dec. 7.

Kavanaugh, 62, was the treasurer of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a
charity involved in Operation Freedom, from 2006 to 2009. Walker
appointed him to serve on the Milwaukee County Veteran Service Commission
during Walker's term as Milwaukee County
executive.

Walker
originally ran the Operation Freedom event through his county office. It was
later turned over to the Purple Heart organization after Walker received legal advice the event should
be handled by a charitable organization.

The investigation began when Tom Nardelli, Walker's
chief of staff in Milwaukee,
voiced concerns about how funds for the event were being handled. Tim Russell,
another close Walker
aide, also was implicated in the investigation.

Russell is accused of diverting more than $21,000 to his personal bank account
and using some of the money to go on Hawaiian and Caribbean
vacations. He is scheduled to go to trial in December.

The investigation is part of a wider probe into Walker's county executive office. Walker, who
was county executive from 2002 to 2010, has not been charged in the investigation.

On Thursday, Kelly Rindfleisch, who was Walker's
deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty to felony misconduct in public office, a
charge that grew out of the investigation into the funds missing from Operation
Freedom. Rindfleisch admitted she did campaign work for Republicans while she
was on the clock in Walker's office working for
the taxpayers of Milwaukee
County.

Walker had been
subpoenaed to testify during Rindfleisch's jury trial. (Editing by James B.
Kelleher and Bill Trott)

How Kevin Kavanaugh – a Scott Walker Appointee – is Alleged to have Stolen
Money from Children of Wis Servicemen Killed in War

September 9, 2012 at 4:51pm

In fall 2006, The Thomas J. Rolfs Foundation – a charitable fund – made a
generous donation to the Wisconsin Military Order of the Purple Heart
(MOPH). The foundation donated $20,000 for children of Wisconsin
service members killed in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
Kevin Kavanaugh, a Walker
appointee to a Milwaukee County Veterans Service Board, was treasurer for the
Wisconsin MOPH and was in charge of disbursing funds.
In late ’06, Kavanaugh received a list of Wisconsin
servicemen killed in the war. In all there were 30 children on this
list. Shortly after, Kavanaugh began disbursing funds - $600 per child –
by checks made out directly to the families
The funds trickled out at first with apparently legitimate payments
made to one child in December ’06 ($600), to three children in Jan ’07 ($1800),
to three children in Feb ’07 ($1800), to two children in April ’07 ($1200), and
to two children in May ’07 ($1200).
And then things changed. Beginning with the summer of 2007,
Kavanaugh started making out checks to “CASH” instead of directly to
families. Checks were made out in multiples of $600 and had notations
such as “2 kids OIF/OEF” or “1 child”. That summer and fall, checks were
made out to “CASH” in amounts suggesting they were for 2 children in July,
2 children in August, one child in September, one child in October, two
children in November of ‘07. In addition to these claimed fictitious
payments, three more apparently legitimate payments were made to children in
October '07. After the fall of ‘07, the "legitimate" payments
stopped and only checks to "CASH" were made out. These
continued through 2008 and 2009. In all, checks recorded for “legitimate”
payments – that is, checks made out directly to families – totaled $8,400 while
checks made out to "CASH", and that the D.A. claims was stolen by
Kavanaugh, total $9,600.
Kavanaugh has pled not guilty to the charges and through his lawyer
has claimed that he made payments to families in cash. However, according
to the D.A.’s complaint, the families on Kavanaugh’s list were contacted by the
D.A. and only the families who had received the gifts by check reported
receiving them, no families reported receiving any cash gifts from Kavanaugh or
MOPH.
Kavanaugh’s theft came to light during investigations made by the Milwaukee County D.A.’s
office into what happened to funds intended for Operation Freedom. These
investigations were part of the secret “John Doe” investigation initiated by
the D.A.’s office in May, 2010.
The money from the Rolfs Foundation is only a fraction of the moneys
allegedly embezzled by Kavanaugh. In all, Kavanaugh is accused of
embezzling over $42,000 from funds meant for veterans or their families.
Kevin Kavanaugh’s trial is scheduled for October 8, 2012.

Ex-Walker appointee convicted of stealing $51,000 from veterans

Kevin Kavanaugh skimmed Purple Heart funds, jury finds

A Milwaukee County jury Friday convicted Kevin
Kavanaugh of stealing more than $51,000 from money donated to help veterans and
their families.
Prosecutors said the 62-year-old Kavanaugh had skimmed the money from bank
deposits and phony withdrawals from accounts for the local chapter of the
Military Order of the Purple Heart, a veterans service organization.
Kavanaugh, of Cudahy,
was treasurer of the group.
He didn't testify at the trial and said nothing following the verdict.
Sentencing on the felony conviction was sent for Dec. 7. Kavanaugh, who had no
prior criminal record, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Kavanaugh's attorney Christopher Hartley said circumstantial evidence in the
form of many checks Kavanaugh cashed from Purple Heart funds were difficult to
overcome with jurors. No direct evidence was presented showing that Kavanaugh
spent the missing money or salted it away for himself, Hartley said.
He argued to jurors that Kavanaugh regularly gave money - a few hundred
dollars at a time - to needy veterans.
The biggest source of money Kavanaugh was accused of tapping was donations
made for Operation Freedom, an annual picnic and veterans event at the zoo that
Gov. Scott Walker hosted while he was Milwaukee County
executive. In 2006, Walker's county office
arranged to have the Operation Freedom donations and expenses run through the
Purple Heart chapter after being advised by county lawyers to have a separate
nonprofit handle the books rather than continue to have Walker aides do so.
Kavanaugh, who also worked as a counselor at the Zablocki
Veterans Administration
Medical Center,
had been named by Walker to the county Veterans
Service Commission.
Prosecutors said Kavanaugh went to elaborate lengths to conceal his
transactions and had witnesses testify they never received money purportedly
donated to them, as listed in his Purple Heart records.
"Why did he falsify the check stubs" to say money was going to
children of veterans killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, asked Assistant
District Attorney Hanna Kolberg in her closing argument to jurors. "Why
did he refuse to open his books when asked" by a Purple Heart auditor, Walker's chief of staff at
the county and others, she said. "Why did he purposely commingle" the
Purple Heart money with his money?
"Because the defendant is a thief," Kolberg told jurors.
Hartley said Kavanaugh was just a terrible bookkeeper.
"Where is the proof?" he asked. Kavanaugh "is not on trial
for being a very bad bookkeeper."
Tom Nardelli, Walker's
chief of staff at the county, testified against Kavanaugh, saying he had made
repeated attempts to meet with Kavanaugh after being told there was some
$11,000 missing from 2006 Operation Freedom funds. Those meetings always fell
through, Nardelli said.
Nardelli said he went to Walker with concerns
about the missing money in 2009, and Walker
told him to report it to the district attorney's office. That led to a secret
John Doe investigation, later broadened to other issues.
It was the second conviction from cases that grew from that probe this week.
Former Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch pleaded guilty Thursday to
felony misconduct in office for doing campaign work while at her taxpayer-paid
county job as Walker's
deputy chief of staff.

Scott Walker Case File: Kevin Kavanaugh

Positions Held: Scott Walker's political appointee to a
Veterans CommissionCharges: One count of theft (value exceeding $10,000), a
Class H Felony punishable by not more than $25,000 and/or up to 10 years in
prison. Three counts of fraudulent writings, each count is a Class H felony
punishable by not more than $10,000 and/or 6 years in prison.Summary: Mr. Kavanaugh, Scott Walker's political appointee
a Veterans Commission and close friend, faces several serious felony and
misdemeanor for embezzling at least $42,232 from the Military Order of the
Purple Heart between 2006 and 2009.
Mr. Kavanaugh allegedly took the money from donations that included more
than $28,000 given by former state Rep. Mark Gundrum, who had donated his
legislative salary to the group while serving on active military duty in Iraq.
Mr. Kavanaugh is also alleged to have stolen money earmarked for children
of Wisconsin military service members killed in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
The criminal complaint said he and his wife had credit card debt exceeding
$40,000.
Control of Operation Freedom funds was transferred from the Military Order
of the Purple Heart to the Cudwoth Legion Post in February 2009, a chapter of
American Legion, a nationally recognized veterans organization.
In October of 2009, Scott Walker inexplicably ordered the transfer of
$19,000 in Operation Freedom funds and financial control over his then Deputy
Chief of Staff, Tim Russell who had no experience running a non-profit. Mr.
Russell then allegedly stole thousands of dollars from Operation Freedom and
used the money to pay for Caribbean and Hawaiian vacations and a political trip
to Atlanta to
meet with Herman Cain's presidential campaign.Click here for the criminal complaint.

Even though the suspects have ties to the governor, Walker has not been
implicated in the year-and-a-half-old probe.

Walker, who served as Milwaukee County Executive before he was elected governor
in 2010, said his office tipped off the DA about missing money in funds devoted
to assisting veterans and their families, particularly the survivors of service
members killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I appreciate that the DA in the Milwaukee County District
Attorney’s Office took those concerns seriously,” the governor said.

Charges: Stealing from vets

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm
on Thursday announced a litany of charges, including embezzlement from a
veterans appreciation fund to child enticement.

Tim Russell, 48, who served as Walker’s deputy chief of staff when Walker
was Milwaukee County executive, was charged with two
felony counts and a separate misdemeanor count of embezzlement, according to
the criminal complaint.

Operation Freedom, held annually around the Fourth of July
at the Milwaukee County Zoo, was funded through Milwaukee County employees and private
individuals.

Russell, according to the complaint, transferred $20,000
from the HGPS-administered veterans fund into his personal account. He used the
money, in part, to fund vacations to Hawaii
and the Caribbean, and a political trip to Atlanta, reportedly to meet with former GOP
presidential candidate Herman
Cain, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.

Russell also is accused of stealing more than $3,000 from
the campaign of Chris Kujawa, who unsuccessfully ran in a
special election for a Milwaukee
County board seat.
Russell served on Kujawa’s campaign, with full control of the campaign funding
account.

Kujawa, who had loaned his campaign $3,000, in late 2007
asked Russell to repay the loan with remaining campaign cash.

“For two years, Russell ignored Mr. Kujawa’s request for
repayment of his loan,” the complaint states. “After Mr. Kujawa threatened to
call then county executive, Scott Walker, Mr. Kujawa was repaid.”

Prosecutors, however, allege Russell tapped into the
veterans fund to reimburse Kujawa.

Sexual allegations

Russell’s longtime domestic partner, Brian Piereck,
48, was charged with one count of child endangerment and another count of
exposing his genitals for an alleged online sexual relationship he had with a
17-year-old male.

The juvenile testified that Piereck, who up until Thursday,
according to reports, was employed as a staff member at the state Department
of Public Instruction, contacted him through an ad on the website Craig’s List.

Investigators, while searching the computer and electronic
devices at the Sun Prairie home Russell shares with Piereck, found sexually
explicit texts, chats and photographs, the complaint states.

Purple Heart charges

Kevin Kavanaugh, 61, of Cudahy,
is charged with embezzling more than $42,000 in donations from the Military
Order of the Purple Heart, or MOPH, an organization that provides support to
families of service members killed or wounded in Iraq.

Kavanaugh, whom Walker
appointed to the Milwaukee County Veteran Service Commission, served as
finance officer for MOPH between 2006 and 2009.

Milwaukee
County in August 2006
transferred Operation Freedom Funds to MOPH. Later that year, MOPH received a Thomas J. Rolfs Family Foundation donation of $20,000,
earmarked for the children of Wisconsin
military service members killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and
Operation Enduring Freedom.

In June 2007, the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation Inc.
cut a $7,000 check to MOPH to fund the National Veterans Wheelchair Games. And
from February 2008 to November 2008, former state Sen. Mark Gundrum donated his
legislative salary of $28,181.38 to MOPH for wounded military veterans.

Kavanaugh “skimmed cash (from the funds) when he deposited
checks into the MOPH General Account,” the complaint states, and he would split deposit checks,
depositing a portion of the check proceeds and taking the remainder as cash in
hand.

“Second, defendant Kavanaugh wrote numerous checks to cash
and pocketed the proceeds,” notes the complaint, adding that Kavanaugh
falsified records to hide the theft.

‘Disappointed’

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Walker said he was disappointed with the
actions of Kavanaugh and Russell, if the allegations are true.

He distanced himself from both suspects, saying he was not
“extremely familiar” with Kavanaugh, that he knew him through the veterans
programs in the past.

He noted Russell had worked in Milwaukee
County for many years, but Walker did not mention
Russell’s involvement in his past campaigns.

Asked what effect the latest charges in the lengthy
investigation would mean to the recall campaign against him, the governor said
anyone can try to “twist things.”

“But I think most people will realize it was my office
(while Milwaukee County executive) that brought these
questions to the District Attorney’s Office,” he said.

The probe, launched in May 2010, has trained on former Walker staffers, but the
so-called “smoking gun” has yet to be found that would implicate the governor
in any wrongdoing.

The investigation started not long after Darlene
Wink quit her county job on Walker’s
staff. She admitted to posting comments online in Journal Sentinel news stories
and blogs praising Walker
and criticizing his political opponents — on the county clock.

Authorities seized the computers of Russell and Wink, who
worked with Russell on the Operation Freedom project, as well as material from
the Madison home of Cindy Archer, a former top
aide for Walker.

William
Gardner, president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., to
date is the only person convicted in the John Doe probe. He pleaded guilty in
July on two felony counts of exceeding campaign contributions to Walker’s campaign for
governor and campaign money laundering.

Walker’s opponents and pundits have said the investigation
appears to be closing in on the governor.

Nothing in the latest charges or the previous allegations
links Walker to
any impropriety.

Bruce Landgraf, Milwaukee County
assistant district attorney, said the office stands on the allegations in the
complaints, and individuals may draw their own conclusions from the legal
documents.

The John Doe investigation continues.

“It is not completed and is still subject to the secrecy
order,” Landgraf said. “To comment beyond that would be inappropriate.”

Please,
feel free to "steal our stuff"! Just remember to credit
Watchdog.org. Find out more

UPDATE: Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker’s deputy chief of staff
when he was Milwaukee County executive, will plead guilty to a single felony
count as part of a deal with prosecutors, according to a Settlement
Agreement.
The John Doe investigation has taken another dark turn for
Scott Walker. Walker’s deputy chief of staff
when he was the Milwaukee
County executive, Kelly
Rindfleisch, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of misconduct in office.
These felony charges carry a maximum combined penalty of $40,000 fine and six
years in prison. It turns out that Scott Walker will not just be a witness but
additional news of a subpoena for his testimony will be part of the trial,
which begins on October 15.

MILWAUKEE (WKOW) — A subpoena for Governor Scott Walker’s testimony in an
upcoming criminal trial of one of his former aides has been submitted to a Milwaukee County court.
Clerk Gina Barron for Judge David Hanscher tells 27 News the subpoena was
submitted to the court Friday.
Barron says the subpoena documents show the subpoena was served on Walker’s attorney, Michael
Steinle.
Steinle has yet to return a call from 27 News seeking comment.
Walker was
previously identified by a prosecutor as a potential witness in the October 15
trial of Kelly Rindfleisch in Hanscher’s court.
Authorities say Rindfleisch committed misconduct by working on campaign
activities in 2010, while at her government job as deputy chief of staff for Walker when Walker was Milwaukee County executive.
Authorities say Rindfleisch exchanged dozens of emails with others on behalf
of the campaign of lieutenant governor candidate Brett Davis, who is now state
medicaid director under Walker.
Authorities also say Rindfleisch used a secret email system, with records of
emails unknown to county custodians of such records.
Rindfleish’s attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, and assistant Milwaukee County
District Attorney Bruce Landgraf have yet to return calls from 27 News seeking
comment on the subpoena served on Walker’s
attorney for the governor’s court appearance to testify.Source
This story is developing and more news about what transpires will be
available.
Meanwhile, another former Walker
associate is going through trial procedures as well. Kevin Kavanugh faces
charges where he embezzled thousands of dollars from veterans’ groups.
The trial for Kevin Kavanaugh begins Monday in Milwaukee. Jury selection is expected to take
up a good part of the first day.
Kavanaugh, a former appointee of then Milwaukee County Executive Scott
Walker, is charged with one count of felony theft and four counts of felony
fraud. Prosecutors say Kavanaugh embezzled $42,000 from veterans’ groups. He
had been appointed to a veterans’ service post by Walker.
The charges against Kavanaugh stem from a secret John Doe investigation into
activities that took place while Walker lead Milwaukee County government. The probe began in
2010 and has not yet concluded.Source
UPDATE on Kavanaugh:
MILWAUKEE, Oct 12 (Reuters) – A former aide
to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was convicted on Friday of stealing money
from a fund for families of U.S.
soldiers who fought in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
A jury in Milwaukee County Circuit Court found Kevin Kavanaugh guilty of
embezzling more than $42,000 from Operation Freedom, a military appreciation
event held each year at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
Kavanaugh, who worked for Walker when the
first-term Republican governor served as Milwaukee County
executive, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Sentencing is
expected on Dec. 7.
Kavanaugh, 62, was the treasurer of the Military Order of the Purple Heart,
a charity involved in Operation Freedom, from 2006 to 2009. Walker
appointed him to serve on the Milwaukee County Veteran Service Commission
during Walker’s term as Milwaukee County
executive.

About Me

Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall began her career in 1956 as a journalist with the Wyoming Eagle in Cheyenne. During her 20 years (plus) as a banker and bank consultant, she wrote extensively for The American Banker, Bank Marketing Magazine, Trust Marketing Magazine, was U.S. Consulting Editor for Private Banker International (London/Dublin), and other major banking industry publications. Barnewall taught private banking at Colorado University and has authored seven banking books, one dog book, and two works of fiction and one biography.
Barnewall is the former editor of The National Peace Officer Magazine and has written editorials for the Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News and Newsweek, etc. She has written for News With Views, World Net Daily, Canada Free Press, Christian Business Daily, Business Reform, and others. She has been quoted in Time, Forbes, Wall Street Journal and other national and international publications. She can be found in Who's Who in America (2005-10), Who's Who of American Women (2006-10), Who's Who in Finance and Business (2006-10), and Who's Who in the World (2008).